Simultaneous traversal: All Abyss difficulty.

Chapter 612 Female Ghost: What the heck? Is that Lao Tzu behind him? Run, you idiot!
Lin Xiaoyu's consciousness gradually blurred amidst the excruciating pain, as if a million steel needles were simultaneously piercing every inch of her skin, or as if countless ants were gnawing at her bone marrow.

She never imagined that the process of turning from a human into a ghost would be so torturous!

"what--!"

The excruciating pain caused her to let out a piercing scream, her nails digging deep into her palms, blood dripping from between her fingers.

Her vision began to distort, and the world before her eyes shattered like a broken mirror.

"Hold on, just a little longer," she silently chanted to herself, but her body began to tremble uncontrollably.

Just as she was about to faint, a strange sense of detachment washed over her.

In a daze, she saw her body slowly fall down, and a semi-transparent "self" was floating out of her body.

"Is this what astral projection is?" She stared blankly at her hands, which had become transparent and glowed with a faint blue light.

The corpses on the ground were quickly entangled by countless wriggling branches and dragged deep into the ground like silkworm cocoons.

In the darkness, a withered old face slowly emerged, with a pair of cloudy eyes embedded in the bark-like wrinkles.

"I'll take your body," Grandma's voice was like sandpaper, harsh and unpleasant. "Now, your soul will be my captor."

Lin Xiaoyu's soul floated in mid-air, coldly watching this terrifying old demon.

"As long as you pledge your loyalty to me," Grandma grinned, revealing her withered lips and uneven, yellow teeth, switching to a man's voice, "you can have anything in the world!"

Lin Xiaoyu's soul trembled slightly, not from fear, but from knowing that the God of War would not allow her to live here in this way. A mocking sneer curled at the corner of her lips: "I know my soul won't last long. I just want to kill that guy named Zhang Ming!"

Grandma's cloudy eyes darted around, and she suddenly let out a shrill laugh: "Good! What a stubborn girl!" She turned to the female ghost beside her, "Xiaodie, you'll be the one to lure this Zhang Ming here."

Xiao Die bowed gracefully, her red lips curving into a seductive smile: "Yes, ma'am~" She gave Lin Xiaoyu a meaningful glance, "Don't worry, little sister, I understand men's hearts best."

Lin Xiaoyu's soul hovered in the dark Lanruo Temple, her eyes burning with the flames of hatred.

She knew her time was running out, but as long as she could witness that beast pay the price, she was willing to sacrifice everything.
"Zhang Ming," she murmured, her voice as cold as the deepest hell, "I want you to suffer a fate worse than death!"

As night fell, the inn was brightly lit.

Everyone sat around an octagonal table, which was filled with steaming hot food.

Although everyone already knew about Lin Xiaoyu's death.

But for those who are already seasoned veterans, the sadness remains in the main square.

As long as the cycle of reincarnation continues, no one knows who is the one who sweeps the grave, or who is the one lying on the coffin.

Zheng Zha wolfed down his rice, Sai Pi was trying to pick up a slippery meatball with his chopsticks, and Zhan Lan elegantly sipped the blood in her cup, which was cow's blood specially prepared for her by the restaurant.

Only Zhang Ming looked thoughtfully at the bowl and chopsticks, glancing nervously left and right.

Zhang Ming didn't listen to a single word of Zhan Lan's analysis.

Zhang Ming doesn't believe a thing about his grandmother's sneak attack!

In broad daylight, and quite far from Lanruo Temple, even the most powerful deity wouldn't launch a surprise attack like this.

Zhan Lan was also unaware of the preceding text; if she had known, she could have analyzed it quite well.
"Twice the fighting strength?" Zhang Ming wiped his sweat and looked at Zheng Zha, Zhao Yingkong and the others on the table, silently placing his hopes on them.

However, he didn't know that even if Fang Yu hadn't said anything, the veteran members of the Zhongzhou team had already automatically excluded Zhang Ming. They could only guarantee not to harm him, but not that they would protect him.

Yan Chixia held his wine bowl, but his gaze kept drifting towards the window.

In the courtyard, Fang Yu wielded the Thunder God's Sword under the moonlight, the blade slicing through the air with a hissing sound.

“This kid,” Yan Chixia shook his head and laughed, “his talent is indeed amazing, but how can cultivation be so impatient?” He tilted his head back and took a swig of wine, then suddenly shouted out the window, “Kid! Let’s eat! I’ve practiced swordsmanship for most of my life, do you think you can surpass me in one go?”

Fang Yu in the courtyard seemed not to hear, and his long sword suddenly drew a mysterious trajectory as he uttered a low shout: "Sword Returns to the Limitless!" He then changed his move to "Sword Transforms into Myriad Forms"! However, apart from the flashes of lightning from the Thunder God Sword, there were no other unusual phenomena.

"Hahaha!" Yan Chixia slammed his hand on the table and laughed, picking up a piece of braised pork and stuffing it into his mouth. "Young people these days are too impatient. Which cultivation doesn't take ten or eight years?" he mumbled indistinctly, his beard smeared with grease. Just then—

"Buzz!"

A clear, resonant sword cry suddenly echoed through the night sky! Yan Chixia's chopsticks clattered onto the table. He abruptly turned to look out the window, where he saw countless sword shadows transformed into a dazzling net of swords under the moonlight!

"Dragon Roars Across the Nine Heavens, Ten Thousand Swords Return to Their Origin!?" Yan Chixia jumped to his feet, knocking his wine bowl to the ground. "How did this kid actually master it?!"

Zhou Mingxuan, a male anime otaku, pushed up his glasses, the lenses reflecting an eerie light: "The captain is now a clone with the Rinne Sharingan! He can replicate ninjutsu, so swordsmanship is a given!"

Although Yan Chixia didn't understand anything about "Rinne Sharingan," he still sat back down in his seat, stunned.

He mechanically picked up his chopsticks, shoveled a couple of mouthfuls of rice into his mouth, and suddenly slammed the bowl down: "How can the difference between people be so vast!" He chewed the rice grains angrily, "If I had this kind of understanding, I would have wiped out all the demons in this world long ago! Alas!"

In the courtyard, Fang Yu stood with his sword sheathed.

Under the moonlight, a lazy smile appeared on his lips as he turned and walked into the house.

Such a scene made not only Li Yingqi and Xiaoqian, but even the zombie Zhan Lan and the cold-blooded North Korean assassin Zhao Yingkong's hearts flutter.

In this cycle of reincarnation, such a man is the most charming, and what's more, his next sentence is even more captivating!
Fang Yu pointed his sword towards Lanruo Temple, his robes fluttering as lightning still lingered, his voice booming like a bell, reverberating across the land.

"A single sword sweeps across the cold stars, cleansing away all demonic influences and making the world vast!"

Before the words were even finished, nine bolts of purple lightning suddenly struck down from the night sky!
The electric light illuminated his features, making him appear like an immortal descending to earth, while behind him, the faint phantom of Laozi stroking his beard and nodding appeared.

The doors and windows of the inn trembled violently in the thunderous power. Yan Chixia's Xuanyuan Sword resonated like a dragon's roar in its sheath. Even Li Yingqi's Heavenly Strike Sword lowered its tip slightly, as if bowing to the majestic power of the heavens!

"Good heavens!" Seppi and Zhou Mingxuan shrank behind the table. "Has the captain become an immortal?!"

Meanwhile, inside Lanruo Temple, Xiaodie was applying makeup to Lin Xiaoyu's eyebrows and hair while asking, "Was that lightning last night really struck by your old friend?"

Lin Xiaoyu nodded, "Mm."

"Heavens! Such a cultivator from Lanruo Temple!" Xiaodie realized she was about to say something wrong and quickly covered her mouth. "By the way, what other skills does that person have?"

Although Lin Xiaoyu was detained, her grandmother had not controlled her mind and body, and her thoughts were still intact. After weighing the situation, she felt that Fang Yu seemed to be able to do whatever he wanted at Lanruo Temple, so she simply told him what she knew.

Xiaodie was stunned.

Lin Xiaoyu translated "the Rumble-Rumble Fruit" as "the Thunder God Reborn."

Ninjutsu was translated into countless Taoist arts.

Genetic lock is innate superhuman strength.

The Rinne Sharingan? The Eye of God!

The most outrageous is
"What did you say?!" Xiaodie screamed, so frightened that she dropped the mirror. "There's a phantom image of Laozi behind him?!"

Lin Xiaoyu was also stunned, then realized, "You've read Journey to the West?"

Xiaodie retreated step by step, crying out, "Laojun, Laojun, phantom! Heavens! Run! We're doomed this time!"

"What kind of old hag and Black Mountain Demon are they? In front of Laozi, no, how could they possibly be worthy of Laozi's attention! They deserve to die! How can such people exist in this world?"

Xiaodie was so frightened that she spun around in place, anxiously trying to think of a solution.

"No! No! I must steal my ashes! Otherwise, I won't be able to escape the area within a hundred miles of Lanruo Temple."

As it spoke, it grabbed Lin Xiaoyu's hand and pleaded, "Sister, little sister! I promise I'll help you kill your enemy! You have to help me, sister!"

Before Lin Xiaoyu could agree, Xiaodie plopped down on the ground, muttering incessantly about the reincarnation of Lei Gong and the phantom of Laozi.

Judging from that, he's already suffering from hysteria.
(End of this chapter)